April 1, 1946, the ice was gone from the Lake of Bays. That's the earliest we've ever recorded, and it's taken from a chart our father Paul kept for over 50 years.
This year, it could be close to that record. particularly if the forecast is correct, and it zooms up to 21 degrees this week. Last year, it was April 21st when the Lake was completely free of ice.
It won't last that long in 2010. It's already loosened along the shores, and is starting to shift and move. A good wind would send this ice piling up along the shorelines, but so far this year, it's been a quiet melt out there. The weather has been fabulous for us shore-bound types, drying up very quickly underfoot . It's dried up, in fact, faster than we've ever seen it do so, which is a bit worrying. It's dry. Very dry.
This leads to some anomalies -- there is still about a foot of snow on the north slope of our big toboggan hill... but the field leading to it is powder dry. A burn hazard, in fact. And not just here in north Muskoka... A friend of mine from the Caledon area reports that he's already coping with dry wells on at least two large equestrian properties he manages. And my lovely big puddle in the pasture -- the one that usually lingers well into the end of April and lets the horses school jumps in and out, well, it's almost gone already...
It's true, Nancy. This early melt is not good. Our small lake ice is gone. The lake level low. It will affect the cycle from bugs to bigger critters, humans, included.
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